'Adventures in the Arcane' gets some ink

Adventures in the Arcane

A Syndicate Publication

$5.99 in print

$1.99 on Kindle

Available from Amazon.com

 

This new anthology of four tales and three essays reignites the fire of old-fashioned weird pulp adventure. It was featured today in The News Herald's weekend Entertainer section.

 

It will make its debut at Panama City Creative Con on Sept. 16-18.

 

Here's the cool book trailer I made:

 

 

Some days the evil loose in the world can’t be beaten by two fists, a trusty sidekick, and a pump shotgun.

Some nights reek of deep time, musty tombs, and creatures spawned from beyond the stars.

When monsters attack, you need heroes with a strong moral compass...and a little supernatural help.

Adventures in the Arcane contains four fantastic stories of pulp heroes, werewolves, pirates, and wizards. Prepare to be thrilled! A Syndicate Production featuring the work of Mark Boss, S. Brady Calhoun, Lou Columbus, Jayson Kretzer and Tony Simmons. 

‘Be Ye Also Perfect’

'Be Ye Also Perfect' by Robert O. Hodgell

(From the painting by Robert O. Hodgell)

By Tony Simmons

In the end, naked as the stars and black as the night, the girl knelt before the old woman and waited. The wise woman, holder of the village history, clutched her book of secrets to her shriveled breast — blind eyes focused on the future. Skin ashen with years and etched like bark, limbs like dried reeds, the woman hovered between the girl and her hut. She would almost disappear into the grain pattern of the wooden walls if not for the simple cotton dress she wore, its colors having faded to a uniform yellow, the flower pattern barely discernible.

The girl, head bowed and hand raised in supplication, caught her breath. For a moment, she thought she smelled the perfume of the flowers on the dress, but then she realized her own bare feet and bended knee crushed the nectar from a hundred night-blooming wildflowers. It was their lifeblood she scented, not the past, not the old woman. She hoped the wise woman had not perceived her confusion, and she bowed deeper, closed her eyes, trembling as the future bloomed and hovered.

“Have ye learned the words of the book?” the old woman asked.

“I know them,” said the girl.

“Are ye frightened of the truth?” the old woman asked.

“No longer. I am amazed and sorrowful.”

“Can ye keep a secret?” the old woman asked.

“If I could, I would not tell you.”

“Then ye are prepared,” the old woman said, lightly placing one palm on the crown of the girl’s head. “Be ye also perfect.”

The woman shrugged out of her dress, bent and folded it, and set her book of secrets upon it by
the girl’s bended knee. Her soundless feet treading night flowers, she walked away from the hut and the girl, naked as the stars, into the night and the jungle.

The girl took the dress and the book. She stood and slipped the dress over herself and stepped into the hut, her head raised, her eyes clear, her future having played out before her.

The Beginning

--

(Author's note: This flash fiction arose from an assignment I gave my creative writing students. We meet at the Panama City Centre for the Arts, and I directed them to stroll the gallery and pick out a painting that spoke to them. Then I challenged them to write a short piece based on the story they got from the painting. This is mine.) 

Behind the Writing: PART 1: Characters or Situations?

The following is the first in a three-part series about the craft of writing, specifically characters and situations, why we write stories, and how to refill the creative well. These conversations took place in early October 2015 with author Mark Boss and myself.

Mark Boss at PC Creative Con 2K15

Mark: We were talking the other day about characters. You read Stephen King’s “On Writing,” and he says he always starts with a situation; I started thinking, how predominant is that? How many authors start with a situation versus starting with a character? When you told me about your Alabama trip, it seemed like the seed of it, the germ was the character first. What triggered that idea, and then did you build the situation around that character?

Tony: I think that story came out of inundating — immersing myself in a bunch of unrelated ideas. I’m in Birmingham, and there’s a lot of stuff about the Confederacy, it’s an iron town — that whole blacksmithy, iron works, steam era feel to it. And I’m reading a lot of steampunk. All of those things fed into the mulcher, and then, driving home, seeing those old Southern city names —

Mark: Specifically, Jemison and Thorsby. Were they in that order?

Tony: Yes.

Mark: Because you might not have thought of it (if they were in the reverse order).

Tony: Right. That came from character first, from a mixture of the names and a time period I had floating around in my head. So in a way, the situation was kind of already there. I was primed to find a story that was steeped in the Old South.

Mark: Which is quite a departure, because I’d say most steampunk, maybe 90 percent of it, is Victorian England. At best, they cross the Channel to France. So Steampunk-USA is a departure.

Tony: With my Caliban stories, it definitely came out of character first. I was 14 years old and wanted to write Doctor Strange. Before I knew it, I wasn’t writing about the wizard, I was writing about the kid he trained and the development of his potential as a magic-user. Over the years, both of those characters kind of developed in the back of my head. — So, how about you, Mark? Character or situation?

Mark:  Looking at the last few books, I realize I’m going more ‘situation.’ My thing was a “what-if.” What if all these bad things happened at the same time? I love zombie things, and zombies were very big at the time. And yet I thought, okay, what if we ramped it up? Because one apocalypse is not enough for me. That’s just too slow. I want to see us get devastated. So you throw in aliens — the classic thing of alien invasion — and then you throw in a robot uprising, and then we’re starting to get it boiling. We’ve brought it up to temperature. Then I started thinking, everyone is going to be caught in this, but we don’t want to follow the people who just sit in their basement and wait for it to stop. We want to follow people out there actually doing things. The books jump around a fair amount to different characters. Even so, I tried to focus on the excitement: Let’s go look for the most important things happening or the most fun things happening. That was more a situation thing, but I had never thought hard about it until recently.

In the next post, we’ll address the question: Why do we make up stories?

Check out Mark's blog "Chimp With Pencil"<<
Mark's website<<
and his Amazon author page<<

GIANTS IN THE EARTH — Now available on Kindle!

Ritualistic child murders bring FBI profiler GABRIEL STREET and occultist SIR ARTHUR MAGUS to the town of Junction, Alabama, just as a young woman seeks shelter on her estranged father's farm. REBECCA CALIBAN is pregnant, tormented by the belief her dead husband came to her in the night, leaving her with child. She descends into madness as the investigators battle the killer, an ageless shapeshifter preying upon the innocent in service to a forgotten god.

... Darkness haunts young Tom Caliban, who grows up in the shadow of his mother’s mysterious death, raised by his grandfather. Unaware of Tom or his connection to their shapeshifting enemy, Magus meets each year with the men who helped him battle the Changeling — but distrust begins to grow between them.

... A traveling preacher walks into Junction one summer day, shouldering a rugged cross and promising souls to his unseen Lord. And as Becca’s child reaches his 18th birthday, a new church rises on the site of the Changeling's pyre — and a girl goes missing in Junction. The souleater rises, its hungry call stirring the restless souls haunting the tiny town — including one spirit who has been searching the halls of the hospital for her lost child these past 18 years.

Previously serialized as three novellas, GIANTS IN THE EARTH is the first volume in an ongoing series, The Caliban Cycle. This edition, gathering the entire tale together, includes never-before-published bonus material that includes notes from the author about the origins of the tale and a sneak preview excerpt from the sequel story, AND THE MOON INTO BLOOD, which will be published in early 2016.

Fiction Fest during Friday Fest

(Note: My News Herald colleague Jan Waddy produced this story about tonight's book signing event for the Friday Entertainer insert.)

Books By The Sea / Jan Waddy Photo

FICTION FEST

What: Book signing/meet and greet with eight local authors

When: 6-8 p.m. during Friday Fest

Where: Books By The Sea, 558 Harrison Ave., Panama City

Details: Facebook: Fiction Fest at Friday Fest!

Friday Fest takes place from 6-10 p.m. the first Friday of every month along Harrison Avenue in downtown Panama City with bands, classic cars, extended business hours and vendors.

PANAMA CITY — Fantasy becomes reality for book lovers during Fiction Fest on Friday at Books by the Sea.

From 6-8 p.m. during Friday Fest, the bookstore is hosting a group book signing and meet-and-greet with eight local and regional authors in several genres.

“It just kind of grew organically,” said News Herald writer Tony Simmons, who first approached the Books by the Sea owner about doing an event.

Though authors already were scheduled, Simmons said, “I don’t mind them being there if they don’t mind us being there.”

Simmons (TonySimmons.info) will showcase his horror/sci-fi novel “This Mortal Flesh,” which was inspired by a dream — or rather a nightmare.

“I awoke from the dream only seconds into it, as I came to realize that I was not only surrounded by the undead, but I was one of them. I looked around at the carnage, realized what my future held ... and woke up, thinking, ‘This would make a cool story,’” he wrote in a March blog (TonySimmons.blogspot.com).

He will join the living on Friday with fellow authors Milinda Jay, Jayson Kretzer, Mark Douglas Jr., Raven H. Price, Janeen O’Kerry, Carole Allen Bailey and Kyra Clark.

Though the authors’ books are in different genres, they will all be at a large table in one spot.

“One idea was to have them in different sections, but separating people is not as fun as having everyone together,” said Books by the Sea owner Donald Ramsey.

Ramsey, born in Panama City and raised in Niceville, got back to his roots about five years ago when he took over the bookstore. Books by the Sea relocated to its new location across the street just over a year ago.

Books by the Sea features “mostly used”  books and selections from local authors when he gets them. Ramsey enjoys fiction, though admits he is usually reading “some kind of educational book.”

Jay (MilindaJay.com), an English teacher at Florida State University-Panama City, published “His Celtic Princess” in January, a prequel to 2014’s “Her Roman Protector.” Proceeds from “His Celtic Princess,” which has an element of Christian faith, support church missions such as Anchorage Children’s Home in Panama City.

O’Kerry’s “Lady of Fire” also combines history and romance.

Douglas (MarkDouglasJr.WordPress.com) rediscovered a love of story telling while reading aloud and dramatizing novels, such as the Percy Jackson series, to his Surfside Middle School students. Like Simmons’ novel, Douglas’ 2014 “The Prophet of the Dragon,” a fantasy novel with Christian themes, was inspired by a dream.

Kretzer, a comics artist/writer, will have copies of his latest “Wannabe Heroes” (Facebook.com/wannabeheroes).

“I think it’s just a real cool event,” said Kretzer, who established Creative Con at the Bay County Public Library.

Creative Con returns to Gulf Coast State College on Aug. 1.

“This is more centered around reading,” Kretzer said. “I am excited to be a part of it. I will have both the first and second issue of ‘Wannabe Heroes,’ a super hero action comedy comic for kids and adults alike, and my comic strip book on hand as well. At a lot of events I’ve done, the parents come and the kids aren’t super excited until they see kids’ books.”

For those who are interested in digital copies, Issue No. 2 also released on ComiXology on Wednesday.

“I’m kinda torn to be honest,” Kretzer admitted, when asked if he preferred print or digital comics. “I still love the smell of a brand new comic book, but being able to take my entire comic book collection with me anywhere is nice. I’m spoiled — want it both ways.”

If you want to find out more about publishing in the digital age, this also would be a good chance to do that.

“All of the authors are independently published or self published so they would be good resources for someone who wanted to come in and talk about the process,” Simmons added.

Clark has released the first of her series, “Oasis: An Awakening.”  Price, a Georgia author, has written a fantasy romance, “The Chosen,” and Bailey — born and raised in South Carolina — is right at home with her Southern novel “The Lady and Her Porch” (PorchLady.net).

Though the authors’ writing styles and inspirations differ, reading is where it all begins.

“Reading is one of the most important things in life, the main way to get an education. Not all things are available electronically,” Ramsey said. “For me, personally, I love the book in hand even though I enjoy the convenience of electronics.”

Boss debuts new thriller, ‘One Bullet’

Cover Art

PANAMA CITY — The only criminal other criminals trust with their money is the bagman, and bagman Joe Barrow never lost a delivery until a mysterious killer left him for dead and escaped with the cash.

Now Joe and his girlfriend, Carly, must find the money before the Cartel, the cops, or his own Syndicate finds them. Carly owns his heart, and Joe will do anything to protect her. He should run, but he’s determined to expose whoever betrayed him and deliver the cash.

One bullet at a time.

That’s the situation in “One Bullet,” the new crime thriller from Panama City author Mark Boss. Set in Panama City, Rosemary Beach and other locations across the Emerald Coast, “One Bullet” tracks its characters from one extreme situation to another in a driving narrative full of violence and dark humor.

In many cases, Mark said, it’s only when people face that kind of situation that you see them for who they really are. That’s why he delighted in throwing obstacles, injuries and betrayals at Joe Barrow as “One Bullet” progressed.

“Early detective characters were cowboys in a city. There’s always a girl — there’s not a plot without a girl — there’s always a bad guy, a McGuffin (or plot device), a bag of cash or a case of jewels,” he said. “It’s a collision of people that are doomed in the same way characters in Greek and Norse myths are doomed, falling forward into the plot. They can’t help themselves.”

Mark’s previous books include the thrillers “Hired Guns” and “The Cultist,” and the urban fantasies “Dead Girl” and “Dead Girl 2: Fader Boy.” He’s a member of the Panama City Writers Association and The Cheshires writing group. His website is MarkBoss.net, and he blogs at ChimpWithPencil.com. >>This is his Amazon profile<<

Mark began writing pulp-style thrillers for a website called “Beat to a Pulp,” and an early version of “One Bullet” was produced for this site. However, he credits PCWA member Wayne Garrett with questioning a portion of the story that got him thinking of it in deeper terms.

“He got the hamster wheel turning,” Mark said, which led to research into things like money laundering and hacking. As is usual for novelists, most of the research is never seen in the book but serves to inform the writer’s approach.

Mark makes his living as an editor-for-hire, freelancing for novelists, tech companies, non-fiction authors, academics and more. His short fiction has been published in “Between There” Volume 2, “Meow,” “50-to-1,” “Blazing Adventures,” “The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature,” and the Emerald Coast Review.

“Editing pays the bills, and writing keeps me off of rooftops and out of sanitariums,” he said. “Anybody going into writing for the money is crazy or at least misinformed.”

Mark’s family came to Panama City in 1969, when he was a wee tyke. He considers himself a native. His first written works were comic books he illustrated in spiral notebooks, though he started reading epic novels like “The Hobbit” at an early age.

“Comics were friendly. They were short in pages, but epic in storytelling,” he said on his Amazon.com biographical note. “The point is that when I wrote/drew the last page, I had told a story.”

He soon began emulating Edgar Rice Burroughs and other authors he admired. He wrote his first (self-described “horrible”) novel during college in the mid-1980s, under the influence of Douglas Adams.

“When I was young, I went through a phase of reading Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler,” he said. “The people in those books were so real to me — people who made terrible mistakes, but that’s real. The things that drove them were relatable to me.”

Post-modern storytelling, full of anti-heroes or a collection of debased characters, is not something that appeals to Mark, who said he needs someone in a story that he can pull for.

“They may be knuckleheads or killers, but at least they’re attempting to do the right thing,” he said. “The heart of every great story is good versus evil, the moral conflict. A story mines that, or it’s just a newscast.”

Mark said he’s fascinated by characters who make all the wrong decisions for all the right reasons, like those who throw caution to the wind for the sake of love: “That trumps everything. Love trumps reason, danger, all of it.”

Peace.

---
(This was my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald.)

The Weaver

THE WEAVER

By Tony Simmons

~

The ancient weaver works her loom in darkness, though the morning sun warms her face. A girl, not her daughter, sits beside her, invisible but for the scent and sense of her presence, a mass with little gravity and no voice. The child feeds the crone’s dry fingertips the threads from spools arrayed on a wooden rack like rainbow pools as the weaver requests them.

”Give me the blue of the sky on a summer’s morning,” says the weaver. ”The sun not yet at zenith, as it is now. No clouds or haze. The blue of an infant day.”

Taking the thread from the girl, the weaver feels its texture, recognizes its touch upon calluses that time has smoothed from the youthful swirls once etched in her skin like the weaving of a fleshy fabric. She nods, feeds it into her loom. Flexes her back, moves with the machine, building visions she glimpses only in her darkness, visions only the unseen child can confirm.

”Give me the emerald of the shallows,” the woman says. ”Waveless. A reflecting pool fashioned from crystal, revealing the sugar carpet where stone crabs scuttle. The emerald of a swimmer’s salty perspective.”

Once more, the girl delivers the thread into the old weaver’s grasp, and she in turn provides its thin materials to her contraption, working the narrow hairs into wide swaths of texture and hue until drops of sweat run off her nose and the day’s light softens upon her head.

”Give me the white of ghosts, of a virgin’s wedding dress, a saint’s halo,” she says. ”White of sugar, white of salt, white of quartz or bone bleached by the sun of a billion years.”

The weaver takes the thread she receives into her fingertips, and she pauses. The texture is incorrect. She sniffs the material, gathers a clump of it rolled like webbing in her palm and strokes it against her sunken cheek. She drops it in the empty, black space between herself and the girl, feels the cool of evening descend as the sun disappears, Apollo abandons his orbit.

”Girl, this is not the white thread I wanted,” she says. ”This is not my thread at all. What are you trying to do? What game is this?”

The darkness is quiet, though she senses the child still sitting beside her, like a breath in the night. The weaver waits as the air turns cool on her face, her fingers go cold, and the ache in her bones becomes a steady moan only she can hear.

”Try again, child,” she says. ”Find me the thread though your sight be rendered black as mine.”

Something moves then. A sound of air and soft contact, of wood scraping. The old weaver knows the noise like she knows the cry of her own muscles – thread in the loom, the sweep of the arm, the action of the machine.

And she moves aside, her day done, someone else picking up the thread of her life and working it into images she cannot even imagine.

----

(This is the story I wrote for use in our short film, "Stringing a Yarn." It was designed for use with a typewriter font that only had working end quotes, and no apostrophe.)

Cocktail Hour shares blog

When Bill Roorbach was in town for BooksAlive recently, he read and enjoyed a column of mine about the mad creative process I enjoyed on a long ride home from Birmingham. I told him it was a version of a blog entry, greatly simplified for the paper, and he asked permission to reprint it on his blog. I sent him a silly photo and an amalgamated version of the blog and column.

He posted it today.

Thanks, Bill!

Inspiration and the Universe Conspire (to help me create a new story)

We were out of town this weekend, spending as much time as possible with my wife's sister, who is undergoing a bone marrow transplant and more chemo in Birmingham. She slept quite a lot, off and on, and I caught up on some Kindle reading, as well as browsing more than I usually do. I started reading a steampunk novel sample (not too good, so I'm not naming it), and decided to check out a sample of a writing guide for people interested in steampunk (also not so good, but whatever, by this time, my brain was engaged).

On the drive home today, we passed a sign pointing to the exit for two nearby towns, Jemison and Thorsby, and I said, "That's a great character name. Jemison Thorsby, a reporter for the Confederate Statesmen paper out of Atlanta in 1870, two years after the Civil War ended in an uneasy truce."

Soon, we passed a sign for two more towns. "Clanton Montgomery," I said. "Former colonel in the Alabama militia. Hero of the Battle of Birmingham. Now a soldier of fortune operating out of the Republic of Texas."

We passed a sign for two more towns. "Coosada Wetumpka," I thought (as by this time my wife was trying to nap). "A Creek Indian. Father was a Red Stick warrior. He works for Montgomery, and is on the train from the free port of New Orleans to Port Arthur when he meets Thorsby."

I began to think about Thorsby more. He's a reporter, dispatched to get the story on Montgomery, who has been making expeditions into the Plains Nations, where the tribes are armed with electrostatic weapons, dirigibles, and steam-powered cannon-carriages to keep the interlopers off their lands. They have a mysterious benefactor that is designing these breakthroughs, and the U.S. government is secretly bankrolling Montgomery's excursions.

On the train, Thorsby sees a beautiful black woman in the company of two white men. She is clearly rich, clearly a free woman, but one of the men is threatening her. The woman glances at Thorsby on several occasions. Later, in the dining car, Thorsby sees the man slap the woman, and he goes to their table to warn the man not to strike a lady. She speaks to him in a lyrical French accent, "I do not require your assistance, little man." I could hear her voice in my imagination.

Only then does he recognize her. But what is her name?

A moment later, I passed a sign for a place called Legrande. That's certainly French-ish. So her name is LeGrande, but that's only a stage name. What's her first name? What's her real name? I pass a sign for a place called Cleo. Her stage name is Cleopatra LeGrande, she's a famous chanteuse, the toast of Paris, but he knew her when they were children. She was a house servant at the same estate where his father was a stable hand. Her name was...

I passed a sign for a place called Ada. He knew her by that name in their childhood, and he would often offer to help Ada with her chores, but she would always say, "I don't need your help, Little Man."

So what happens when they reach Port Arthur? And then onward to Beaumont, and all across to Amarillo? What happens when they cross the border into "Injun Country," as Wetumpka sneeringly calls it, and they face the dirigible fleet of the United Tribes under the command of Touch the Clouds (a character who I had in mind, but not by name until I happened to do a search for "native American leaders" and found this list)?

What otherworldly monstrosity waits in Roswell? What is "the Breach" and why must it be "Repaired"?

(I wondered that when I passed a sign on a country church that declared they were "Repairers of the Breach." (Don't look that up, because it will depress you.))

The sunset was fiery red as we passed through a string of small Alabama towns. Signs and portents in the sky. The iPod began playing a song about a woman traveling back in time, and I knew I had my answers...

...And that is how a story begins to take shape in my head.

Peace.

In defense of zombies

Me, Zombified

Zombies scare me.

I don't know why, exactly. Maybe it's the idea that they are us, just with our morals switched off and our hunger turned to 11.

Maybe it's the idea that they can't be reasoned with (insert your favorite political joke here), or that they never tire, they never stop, and it seems like they come out of nowhere by the multitudes.

Maybe it's the overwhelming dread of a worldwide plague turning the planet into a dead zone where the slightest noise or a change in the direction the breeze blows can mean death.

I seldom have nightmares about zombies. I generally recall my dreams in detail, and my really bad dreams are usually about demons. (Don't even get me started.)

Then one night I dreamed that I was a zombie. I "woke up" in the middle of a feeding frenzy, at first frightened and confused by the walking corpses all around me and the prey they were devouring, and suddenly a weird calm came over me.

My new e-book of short stories

I realized what I was and why the horde wasn't trying to attack me. I was just like them. And I realized that was okay with me (in this dream, at least) — knowing what I was, I could deal with that. (I've tried to decipher the psychological implications of this dream. In fact, I'm writing a book to deal with them.)

But see:  There was a sense of personal freedom that set in once I realized that my continued existence had been made so simple. There were no worries, because the worst had already happened. All I had to do was feed myself, and the rest of the world could go to hell.

Like I said, I'm working this out: That's where the opening scene of my new novel takes place — as an undead man "awakens" (becomes self-aware) in the middle of an afternoon snack he's sharing with another undead man. (You can read this opening scene in my new ebook, "Tales of the Awakening Dead," only 99 cents on Kindle!)

I spent last year's NaNoWriMo exploring what happens next — a simple thing, as the man recognizes that the food stocks are being depleted while the number of predators rises. That won't do, of course, so he has to find a way to reduce the feeders and fatten the prey and ensure a steady supply of "This Mortal Flesh."

The trailer video for Tales of the Awakening Dead

As I wrote in the introduction to 'Tales of the Awakening Dead,' there's some cultural backlash already rising that indicates people think the zombie apocalypse is played out as a source for storytelling. That's being floated out there at a time when "The Walking Dead" is a hit comic book and a super-hit TV series. (It returns for its fourth season Sunday, and AMC is now developing a spin-off series to fill the seasonal hiatus next summer.)

The Walking Dead Season Four Trailer

So obviously, there are still plenty of stories to tell.

Myself, I write about zombies for a variety of reasons beyond my own desire to understand my dreamstates. One, they make excellent metaphors for just about any massive, mindless groupthink you want to apply. Two, you can set up different rules for how the creatures multiply and how they operate (can they speak? do they run or shamble? does only a bite spread infection?). Three, exploring how your human characters relate to one another and the zombies in such an environment reveals so many things about the human condition.

But an added bonus, and probably most importantly: You can tell any story in this framework. When it comes to human relationships, action/adventure, or even buddy cop stories, zombies are like bacon — they can make any story better.

Don't believe me? Next time you're writing and you hit a wall, and you don't know what happens next, have a zombie come through the window. Instant writer's block solvent.

----

Thoughts? Refutations? Please comment!

‘Between There’ features ghostly tales

PANAMA CITY — A young deputy trying to make a name for himself opens a cold case and is visited on Halloween by a restless spirit as he answers a call to Econfina Creek.

Homeless men witness a murder while hanging out under Hathaway Bridge.

Two supernatural creatures are involved in a paranormal investigation of Bay County’s Tram Road.

Those are descriptions of “Cold Case” by Ruth Corley, “The Dog Watch” by Mark Boss, and “Elusive Prey” by Anthony S. Buoni, three of 13 frightening tales in the new anthology, “Between There” Vol. 2.

Such ghostly stories will be on tap Tuesday evening at Chez Amavida in Panama City, which is hosting the launch party for “Between There” in conjunction with Writers Gallery, the monthly open mic gathering for local writers. Books will be for sale, and everyone will be invited to play haunted bingo for door prizes. Costumes are encouraged.

“The coffee shop has been home to the Writers’ Gallery meetings on the third Tuesday of each month, allowing local authors a stage for sharing their work,” Buoni said. “This month’s meeting will not only let writers read their material, but will showcase several authors featured in the anthology, reading and signing copies of the book.”

Buoni describes himself as “a haunted writer” living in Panama City Beach whose work has been featured in magazines, noir anthologies and his own local underground ’zine “the meow.” In addition to writing, he is a musician, father and ghost hunter.

“Between There” Vol. 2, , released by Pulpwood Press, features the work of regional and national writers exploring what happens when departed souls intrude upon everyday lives. Ranging from mystery and horror to philosophy and erotica, the book showcases short stories, flash fiction, campfire yarns and a screenplay that brings readers not quite to the realm of Death, but somewhere between here and there.

Many of the writers involved are from Bay County. Joining Buoni, Corley and Boss are N. Wayne Garrett, Conrad Young, Brittany Lamoureux, Kyle Clements, Angela Apperson and Joseph Davis. Others include Autumn Lishky from Oklahoma, Dee Jordan from Mobile, Ala., and Jacqueline Seewald, previously nominated for a Nebula Award for her short story, “Touched by Wonder.”

Mark Boss at left, Ruth Corley at right

 (Full disclosure: I’m part of a writing critique group that includes Boss and Corley (see photo at left for the whole group posing with author Tim Dorsey), and one of my short stories appeared in the first volume of “Between There.” I’m also a regular participant at Writers Gallery.)

Corley is a fiction writer in addition to her job as public information specialist with the Bay County Sheriff’s Office. The two interests led her down a surprising trail as she wrote “Cold Case.”

“I love to hear the stories of the ‘old days’ in law enforcement here in Bay County,” she said. “A friend told me how the top floor of the old Old Jail (before what we now refer to as the Old Jail/BCSO Office was built, which used to be next to the Court House) was considered haunted. … I thought I would use that bit of folklore in a story and set it back in 1990, when both buildings were used simultaneously. Oh, to make it even creepier, the county morgue was housed in the basement of the old Old Jail, which also gave the building a unique ambience.”

Boss, a freelance editor and author of thrillers, said his inspiration came from multiple sources.

“The title has a double meaning,” he said. “It refers to a dog they see, and it’s also the nautical term for the short watches on a ship that take place between 4 to 6 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. I drew on the excellent work our local Association of St. Jude does in helping the homeless, and combined that with a scary location. The stuff about the dog and the murder, I made up.”

Corley said her characters often surprise her as she’s in the process of writing.

And that bodes well for a book about things that go bump in the night.

(Rest in) Peace. 

-----

BOOK LAUNCH
What: Release party for ghost story anthology ‘Between There’; books for sale; play haunted bingo for door prizes; costumes encouraged
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15
Where: Chez Amavida, 2997 W. 10th St., Panama City

(This is my column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.)

This weekend special: 15 PERCENT OFF of my books

NOTE: This special is now ended. Look for more savings in upcoming weeks.

In honor of the 14th annual Gulf Coast Writers Conference, I'm offering 15 PERCENT OFF each of my books available for purchase through the online distributor Lulu.com through this weekend. (Sale ends Sunday.)

Here are direct links to each of the books:

33 Days

33 Days: A collection of 10 stories inspired by the songs on the debut album by The Offer.

 (paperback)

The Book of Gabriel

The Book of Gabriel: An Endtimes Fable

(hardcover)

OR click here for the trade paperback edition

The Best of Days

The Best of Days: Short Stories and Miscellany

(paperback)

Welcome to the Dawning of a New Century

Welcome to the Dawning of a New Century: A Novel
(trade paperback)

City Limits (Vol.2)

City Limits (Volume 2): The Official Literary Anthology of the Panama City Centennial

(paperback)

City Limits (Vol. 1)

City Limits (Volume 1): The Official Literary Anthology of the Panama City Centennial

(paperback)

'Moonrise' Photo Blog

Cassandra King stopped by Panama City last week to promote her new novel, Moonrise, accompanied by her husband, author Pat Conroy. You can read more about the event >>here<< and check out these photos:

Pat Conroy poses for photo with fan.

Cassandra King with publicist Kathie Bennett

Conroy introduces King.

King grits her teeth for one. more. photo.

Debra and me after the reception.

King addresses crowd at PC library.

King signs books at the library.

Conroy works the crowd at the library.

Conroy poses for photos.

It is Finished. (... And So It Begins ...)

My Plan for the Foreseeable Future

Wednesday, I took a vacation day from my job. It was my 49th birthday. It was also a personal deadline.

Several months ago, inspired by a prompt Mark Boss gave at a writers' conference, I was finally able to get back to my lifelong writing project, collectively referred to as "Caliban."

>>(I wrote about the origins of the project here.)

With the help of a group of local writers (Mark, Ruth Corley, Rich Kevan, Carole Lapensohn, Marty Sirmons and Milinda Stephenson, otherwise known as "The Cheshires") I have taken my 1994-era version of the tale and brought it into 2013.

Wednesday, I wrote somewhere around 3,500 words, finishing the last segment of the story that remained.

I've been in a daze ever since. (Mark told me at lunch on Thursday that I had that "1,000-yard stare.")

I'm now working my way through the book using the Cheshire's notes on early chapters to weave together dangling threads, enhance descriptions and motivations, explain the inexplicable, and otherwise polish this thing to a glowing sheen.

I'm calling it "Giants in the Earth: Book One of the Caliban Chronicles."

When I complete this part of the final edit, I will be sending it to a friend who is considering representing me as a literary agent. And I will write a novella (or maybe just a long short-story) about one of the supporting characters in this story (Working title: "The Case of the Invisible Vampires")

And post a collection of my zombie short stories to Amazon just in time for Halloween and the return of The Walking Dead on TV.

And begin work on the direct sequel to this story. (Working title: "The Moon Made Blood")

With more to follow.

I was floating in the neighborhood pool yesterday as the sun set, and I had the most pleasant positive mental state wash over me.  I felt like I had crossed a threshold of some kind.  Reached a personal plateau that revealed a clear path to even higher elevations.

It was a trick of the mind, of course, but I'll take it.

Hope is a good thing to have, especially when you doubt yourself as much as I do.  And finally having a sense that you've accomplished something worthwhile -- and that more good things are ahead -- is such a wonderful new experience that I can't even quite grasp the enormity of it.

I'm just gonna go with it while it lasts.

Flashback Friday: An early review of 'Starman' comic

(On May 21, 1996, the News Herald printed the following review of James Robinson's revival of the Starman character at DC Comics. It was as much a love letter to that series as a statement in reaction to what comics had become in the 1990s. I remain a fan. (Please ignore the use of the 'x' in 'comix,' which was how we spelled things in the 'Generation NeXt' section back then.))

Jack Knight, From Wikipedia

The heroes of old are, with a few notable exceptions, gone from the pages of four-color comix. That bright world has lost its innocence — and much of its creative energy — to teams of muscle-bound vigilantes toting semi-automatic plasma bazookas, and to impossibly endowed females flirting with loss of circulation if their rubber corsets were any tighter.

 Then came Starman.

As created by writer James Robinson and artist Tony Harris, Starman is Jack Knight — a small figure of a man, a tattooed late-20-something, obsessed with all things rare and antique. He'd rather scour rural flea markets for View Master reels and Depression glass than dress in Spandex and duke it out with the villains.

His idea of a costume is night-vision goggles and a leather jacket.

But as the younger son of a 1940s superhero, Jack has become the epitome of the chicken-or-egg question that haunts history: Do great events conspire to create heroes, or do great men and women arise to make history?

In Jack's case, events sought him out and he rose to the challenge. His big brother, David, was first to don Dad's mantle, only to be killed by a sniper's bullet in the first pages of the first issue.

(Jack has since had two surreal visits with his deceased brother — the first as they fought in a grave yard over the right to the Starman name, and the second as David sought to warn Jack of future events.)

With his father injured, his brother dead and his own antique shop razed by the children of an old foe, Jack uses his dad's "star rod" to rout the bad guys and restore order to Opal City.

Through Jack and his supporting cast, Robinson has crafted a book with the multiple layers of history, personality, foreshadowing and drama usually found only in works print-only fiction. His characters are distinct and react with realism — as seen in the frustration and distance between father and son that slowly dissolves into a growing respect and admiration for their individual strengths.

The periodic "Times Past" stories allow guest artists to explore events in the history of Opal and its citizens, giving us a glimpse of the Golden Age of heroes; or a tale of the nigh-immortal. sometimes-villainous Shade and his friendship with Oscar Wilde.

Meanwhile, artist Harris has crafted a vision of retro-deco cities, of characters delineated by quirky swirls and outlines, of shadows and black bordered pages.  No larger-than-life people dominate his panels — save for the lumbering Solomon Grundy. Though stylistically rendered, these are anatomically realistic human beings with an expressive range far removed from the grimacing brain-bashers in other comix.

Like our own shared version of reality, this can be a dark world. People die. Bad guys revel in the pain of others. Some cops are less-than-true to their code. Evil is powerful.

But now there's a beacon in the night.

"Starman has always been around," Robinson said in his introduction to the series, "a light in the darkness, in his own little corner of the DC universe."

Undercurrents: Getting there one word at a time

Kayla and Nick at Writers Gallery

PANAMA CITY — One word at a time.

That seemed to be the lesson at Tuesday night’s gathering of the Writers Gallery.

On the third Tuesday of each month, local writers meet at Chez Amavida in the historic St. Andrews neighborhood to read something they’ve been working on, or to share a passage from their published work. The readings range from poetry to prose, and within those areas are encompassed true stories, dark fictions, regional farce, religious testimonials and philosophies. You might not like all of it, but chances are you’ll love some of it.

It can be a boisterous crowd, as some others in the coffee shop discovered Tuesday. We applaud each reader when they finish, and when those applause coincide with someone entering the shop, they can be taken aback.

Of course, a few of the regulars are lurkers. That is, they listen, they watch, they applaud when appropriate, but they don’t enter the spotlight to expose themselves (metaphorically).

One word at a time was how one of the readers progressed through his effort. Upon making acquaintance with the microphone after several invitations from our emcee, Kayla May, the man explained how he drew letters on a page until they made words, then grouped words on the page until they made sentences. However, he wasn’t sure if the sentences made sense, even as he began to read them.

I can relate. I suppose you, dear readers, can too.

(I flashed back a couple of days, to a morning when I stopped alongside Delwood Road to remove a small turtle from the street. I watched it plod, one step at a time toward the trees, and wondered how long it would take for it to reach its destination. I was reminded that life’s about the journey, the steps, rather than the goal, which is ever changing.)

One word at a time also was how Kayla bravely made her way through reading the story of a Gallery regular who prefers not to read his own work aloud. Her willingness to proceed through the pronunciation of unfamiliar words lent a new level of enjoyment to the experience.

The monthly event, beginning its third year, was organized by Nick May, Kayla’s husband, the author of “Megabelt” and “MinuteMen,” and a worship arts leader at Northstar Church in Panama City. On Tuesday, he read from a blog about his creative process and the importance of prayer. (You can see the whole thing at his site, HeyNickMay.com.)

Like most writers of any discernment, Nick gives himself a hard time. It’s no easy thing to find a balance between real-world obligation and the desire for creative expression, between family and fiction, between words and the Word.

His blog ends with a self-admonition we could all embrace: “So here goes … one word at a time.”

Peace.

(This is my Undercurrents column for PanamaCity.com and The News Herald this week.)

Two Writers: A Video

Thanks to Lou Columbus for shooting and editing this chat between me and Michael Lister. It's a bit long, but if you have the time, we both read from our work in the second half; Michael reads from his newly released novel, The Big Beyond, and I read from a work-in-progress, Giants in the Earth.




Thanks again, Lou!

Now available on Kindle!

The Book of Gabriel: An Endtimes Fable by Tony Simmons is now available for download to Kindle devices, or via Kindle readers on most other mobile devices.

>>Click here to check it out<<

If you've read it, please leave a review. If you haven't, then now is your chance.

>>Here's what Jan Waddy at The News Herald wrote about it<<

Peace.

Beyond the Big Beyond

I'm going to be sharing a book event with Michael Lister on Sunday, 2-4 p.m. at the Bay County Public Library. We'll be discussing our latest projects and doing some reading, and there will be books to sign and sell if you're interested in that sort of thing. Here's a column I did about Michael's new novel:

Soldier reups for second noir adventure

PANAMA CITY — Private eye Jimmy “Soldier” Riley seems dead set on discovering what lies beyond that final farewell in local author Michael Lister’s latest novel.

“The Big Beyond” is a sequel to Lister’s “The Big Goodbye,” which introduced Riley, a hardnosed detective living and working in 1940s Panama City. Rich in historical details, the story is gritty and tragic, as good noir tends to be.

“Beyond” picks up immediately after the events of “Goodbye,” with Riley recovering from injuries both physical and emotional. It hits the ground running, too, as Riley is almost immediately kidnapped and horribly tortured. It seems the trouble he stirred up in his previous outing had much deeper roots than he suspected.

Riley hovers near death, but can’t let go while he still has a score to settle and more than a few injustices to square — all while searching wartime Panama City for a dangerous serial killer who combines art and murder.

“I love Panama City, and I’ve enjoyed writing about the way it was in the 1940s far more than I ever would’ve imagined,” Lister said. “So much was going on here at the time, and it’s just such an interesting and cool era. And this time I got to explore what was happening to Japanese-Americans and what was going on in the art scene at the time. I foresee coming back to Soldier and his friends over and over again.”

A Wewahitchka native, Lister has had 12 novels, three short-story collections and three nonfiction books published. The John Jordan mysteries, also known as Lister’s “Blood Series,” are the author’s most popular and most acclaimed works, with kudos from “Publisher’s Weekly” and “Ellery Queen Magazine,” among others.

“The Big Beyond” will be followed by a third Soldier Riley adventure to complete an initial trilogy; Lister said Riley has other stories still to tell. He’s currently offering a Soldier short story prequel in ebook format and is hard at work on the third book in the series.

“I’ve always loved both film noir and the classic hardboiled detective genre,” Lister said. “ ‘The Big Beyond’ has given me another opportunity to explore and pay homage to them both.”

CityArts Cooperative will step back in time for a ’40s Night release party celebrating the era and the release of the new novel at 6 p.m. today. The public is invited to come in costume or as you are, and enjoy live 1940s music, a costume contest, book signing and reading, film noir, dancing and much more.

Then, from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Lister will discuss “The Big Beyond,” writing, North Florida and many other topics with this writer in a dual interview format: We will interview each other about recent and upcoming projects, read from our latest work and sign books.


’40s NIGHT PARTY

    When: 6-10 p.m. Friday, April 5
    Where: CityArts Cooperative, 318 Luverne Ave., Panama City
    What: Step back in time and experience Panama City in the 1940s with friends and fans of Jimmy “Soldier” Riley, the private eye protagonist of the new novel from Michael Lister, “The Big Beyond.” Come in costume or as you are. Featuring live ’40s music, games, prizes, book signing and reading, and film noir.


BEYOND ‘THE BIG BEYOND’

    When: 2-4 p.m., Sunday, April 7
    Where: Bay County Public Library, 898 W. 11th St., Panama City
    What: Presentation by Michael Lister with Tony Simmons, discussing writing approaches and more; with books available for signing and purchase


Hope to see you there.
Peace.

What's What Lately

It has been a busy time in the life of the Simmons family. A new home still being moved into/fixed up/maintained, a new job for Debra, school for Jess and work/band responsibilities for Nathan, trying to fit a new church home into that, and still trying to make room for creative endeavors and friends and maybe meeting my obligations with a group of local writers (i.e., reading and commenting on their work as conscientiously as they are on mine).

I've taken to having lunch at least once a week at St. Andrews Coffee House, often with friends like Lou Columbus, Mark Boss, and/or Jayson Kretzer. Yesterday, shared a table and sandwiches with Lou and Michael Lister, and we talked about Michael's new novel, "The Big Beyond," which has one of the best first sentences I've seen; I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.

Meanwhile, I also have several books, magazines, and/or comics I'm reading at the same time. Right now, besides trying to make my subscription to WIRED worthwhile by actually reading some of it, I'm partway through these: "The Long Man" by Steve Englehart (sequel to his excellent "The Point Man"), "Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne (essays on the personality of cities observed from bike seats), "Warp" (a comic series from the 80s that I found all the issues to in a discount bin), and "Cthulu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors" by Robert E. Howard.

Also, writing proceeds on my long-gestating "Caliban" series, with a focus on a rewrite of Book 1, now titled "Giants in the Earth." I have written my way to the end with a leap over the "muddle" chapters in the middle. Now, I'm back in the difficult part of making the beginning line up with the ending.

And in my free time (hyuk-yuk) I've begun serious writing alongside that of a memoir that explores the impact and weird parallels with my life of 1970s TV scifi. Yep, chew on that one a while. You would not believe the craziness my brain gets up to when I'm not paying attention (which seems to happen a lot), and then it demands that I do something about it.

Listening to: "The Next Day" by David Bowie.

Peace.